Instead, block off 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes at night for reading. You don’t need to set aside an hour straight for reading. That’s more than two dozen non-work related books in 12 months.
Set a daily goal
I’m normally a lover of historical fiction, but this year? I get weirdly excited whenever I finish a book and post about it on my Instagram Story to see who else it’s impacted. See what feels best, and feel free to mix it up! Whether MS Interactive you’re reading on your Kindle, listening to Audible, or holding a hardcover, you’re reading.
Read (or listen) on the go
As a speedy reader, I’ve loved using it to download all the titles I wanted for a fairly affordable price. Kindle aside, some simple strategies also helped me become a better reader, such as setting lofty goals with friends and trying out a monthly book subscription. From the right e-reader to a book subscription, here are my favorite ways (some free, some vibe-setting) to read a lot We talked to English teachers, education coaches and researchers, and library specialists to help you find your reading motivation and make reading fun. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article was co-authored by Tristen Bonacci, MEd and by wikiHow staff writer, Luke Smith, MFA.
Reader Videos
Keep up the momentum by saving books you’re interested in, whether it’s a list on your phone or saved on a digital wishlist. Play around with different days and times of the day to see when it feels accessible and pleasurable for you to read. But now that I read more, it has become one of my favorite parts of the day. There was a time when the feeling of a paperback felt too overwhelming, and it was audiobooks that got me into reading, to and from work. As you read more, you can also follow along with Read With Jenna’s Streaking With Jenna, a 2023 initiative inviting readers to keep a reading streak going throughout the year.
"Commit to just five minutes. This helps to kickstart the challenge and will often lead to doing it for longer," she says. See which medium works best for your routine. Or, you can read and listen at the same time. Straub says she’s always juggling between forms, balancing an audiobook with a physical book.
Book of the Month subscription (trial requires a two-month commitment with the second month at full price) Below, I’ve shared 12 of my favorite ways to read often and a lot – including a completely free (and legitimate) way to access e-books, among them new releases. I relished checking out comically large stacks of well-worn hardcovers from authors such as Beverly Cleary and Alvin Schwartz. Like many children who grew up in suburbia’s monotony, I found my local library a welcome escape. I love all things books and reading and my goal is to make it fun and easy for you to find great books for you and your kids, plus share all the best reading tips and tricks! I’d love to hear them – please share in the comments!
Start small
There are 20 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. There’s also, she points out, a built-in community waiting for you at your local library. “They make it feel more like a communal thing that you’re doing.” Or if you’re driving, walking the dog, or folding the laundry, why not turn on an audiobook? Then the pandemic arrived—and I realized that the easiest, safest way to access library books was to opt for the e-version. Wolf, for example, reserves 15 minutes every morning to read; if she’s unable to, she opens her book at night instead.
About This Article
I’ll read for 5 minutes, but then get the itch to check my email or scroll through Instagram. I’ve found that when I read on my phone, I tend to get really distracted. Now I’m going to completely contradict that advice by recommending you avoid reading on your smartphone as much as possible. So I just recommended using the Kindle app on your smartphone to get more reading done. Avoid reading on your smartphone. The easiest way to be ready to read when you find yourself with a little slice of time is to download the Kindle app on your phone.
- There’s also, she points out, a built-in community waiting for you at your local library.
- The other advantage of paper books is that I find it easier to highlight and make notes compared to e-readers.
- Embark on a quest to read every book featured on this year’s New York Times hardcover nonfiction best sellers list, for example, or to read something published each year from the time you were born.
- Wolf, for example, reserves 15 minutes every morning to read; if she’s unable to, she opens her book at night instead.
Being open to different formats, including e-books and audiobooks, is a great way to squeeze in more reading time, Moreno says. If you don’t want to put a number on it, pledge to spend a specific part of each day reading. I also like the Goodreads app; It’s a fun way to easily log the books you have or want to read, see what your friends are reading, and peruse other readers’ reviews. I love to read—and wish I could do more of it—because it’s an effective and entertaining way to quiet my always-busy brain. Maybe you’ll find that, like me, it’s reading in the morning.
With that said, in addition to the books I read specifically for the Art of Manliness last year, I also managed to read 2-3 books every month for pleasure. It’s not that impressive when it’s what you do for work. When I write articles, I read books for research.
If you’d love to read the bestseller everyone is talking about, Libby’s “smart tag” feature lets you turn on notifications for books months before their release. If you love a specific author, consider attending a book signing or panel discussion. At the start of each month, I like to outline the three to five novels I plan to read, placing holds at my library and downloading titles to my Kindle. I participate in Goodreads’ annual challenge, which lets me and other readers track our goals together. And if you’re on the hunt for an e-reader even lighter than the Kindle, we recently tested a new smartphone-sized e-reader that was revealed at the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show. If you have a long drive to the office, try downloading a few audiobooks to keep you company during your trafficky commute.
Similarly, author Jamie Ford only allows himself to go on social media for certain hours, devoting the rest of his free time to reading and writing. "I have a room where there’s no technology allowed. It’s a new room. I just take books there, put my phone away and read," she says. For Jenna, her phone and its endless pinging are among her top obstacles to reading. "Get yourself around people who who are trying to do the same thing," she says. Now, she considers the othe people in her book club — hosted on the social media platform Geneva — her "accountability partners," and says many other members are trying to get back into reading. It’s not always the same — it depends what mood you’re in," the author of "This Must Be the Place" says. She frequently shifts between genres, going from a romance to a short story collection to a memoir.
